‘Divac is a cheat and liar’

Serbian basketball legends – one a former player and another a coach – have openly and publically said what they think of each other. Vlade Divac, the reigning president of the Serbian Olympic Committee and former player, has recently been in Slovenia visiting the basketball camp called Basketball Without Frontiers, and answering the questions at a press conference, said Slovenian Basketball Association had made the wrong move by hiring Bozidar Maljkovic for the post of men’s national team coach. Divac suggested Maljkovic should not have been appointed in place of Jurij Zdovc, saying the latter would have been the only coach able to lead the Slovenian team to success. Maljkovic found himself insulted by the comments made from Divac and the former coach of Jugoplastika, Limoges and Panathinaikos, clubs which all became European champions under his reigns, responded by speaking freely about Divac, the former star of Partizan Belgrade and a number of NBA teams.

- “I haven’t been following your team much but I know you have had success in the past. Now you have a totally new coach, but I think Jure Zdovc could have taken you to better results. I must stress I don’t know much of the current Slovenia squad, but I think you have made a mistake by replacing Zdovc with Maljkovic. In my opinion, Jure is the best Slovenian coach,” Dnevnik.sl reported on Divac’s comments, while the former centre last night told our correspondent in Doboj:

- “I don’t wish to comment on what Maljkovic has said, this tells you more of him than me and it is a statement of what kind of man he is,” the president of the SOC said in a vexed manner.

Boza Maljkovic, who is currently with the Slovenian national team in Kranjska Gora preparing for EuroBasket, has spoken for Zagreb-based newspaper Sportske novosti and on the occasion said he would yet speak out on Divac.

- “Am I surprised? Well, I am and I’m not. I could have expected something like this from Divac – he is a cheat and a liar who is ignorant of the facts. Now he feels the need to defend my former player Zdovc from myself, and I am surely more of a friend of Zdovc’s than Divac. He is also forgetting the fact I did not succeed Zdovc and that Memi Becirovic was in charge of Slovenia at the World Championships.

The reporter who interviewed Divac was totally inconsiderate towards Divac and asked him a question in the morning, and Divac was still dazed as he usually gets up around 3 pm – that’s why he was saying nonsense. I will most probably deal with the life and work of Divac more seriously after the EuroBasket is over because I don’t have the time for that now,” Maljkovic responded bitterly.

SOC president’s comment that “Boza replacing Zdovc is a mistake” has been met with an angry reaction from basketball coach